One of reasons why your energy levels fluctuate so much is because of dopamine.

Imagine this:

You’re sitting there staring at the computer. Your exams, or perhaps your work deadline, is coming up. You tell yourself to work. But instead you waste time on Facebook or you head out for a drink or for a smoke, or you binge watch Netflix.

That’s how I used to live. And it’s how billions of other people live.

The problem is you are boosting dopamine levels using unhealthy sources. Social media. Smokes. Coffee. Alcohol. They all boost dopamine levels, but in a bad way.

Those unhealthy sources of dopamine prevent you from being highly self motivated. And they can massively interrupt your quality of life.

Natural sources of dopamine are essential for balancing brain chemicals

Most times, when people are unproductive and unmotivated it’s because of a chemical imbalance.

The most important brain chemicals for productivity and motivation are:

Dopamine:

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that transmits signals between nerve cells (1).

Dopamine motivates you to take an action.

When you perform a positive action your brain is doing it in anticipation of the release of dopamine that will result from it. Basically It’s the carrot in front of the horse’s face.

One of the best natural sources of dopamine is food. We ingest tyrosine, an amino acid, that becomes dopa, and that dopa then becomes dopamine. That dopamine is then passed through the brain via dopamine machinery. If that dopamine machinery is impaired, a variety of complications can arise, including: Parkinson’s, ADHD, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer’s.

Thing is, when you don’t use natural source of dopamine, you kill your motivation levels.

What this all means is that we need the right amount of dopamine in the right place at the right time.

Other brain chemicals that work alongside dopamine are:

Serotonin:

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that can have a huge effect on mood and emotion.

Serotonin is released when you reflect on past accomplishments—your brain perceives little difference between reality and imagined reality, so when you imagine reliving past glory you release serotonin. Healthy exposure to the sun also releases serotonin.

Oxytocin:

Oxytocin creates trust and intimacy. It’s the cuddle hormone. So if you hug people a lot it’s because your brain wants to keep a steady flow of oxytocin.

Were mankind 100% natural and not entirely self-destructive, this dopamine situation would be an entirely positive thing. We would all be boosting dopamine levels naturally, such as by eating fruit and other healthy food, exercise, work hard, and do other positive things, because those are the natural ways of boosting dopamine levels.

Problems arise when you boost dopamine levels from sources that are unnatural and unhealthy.

To prove this, go get yourself a horse.

Well, don’t really, but take it from a horse lover, if you put a carrot on a stick in front of a horse the horse will keep walking until it gobbles up the carrot. That’s a good thing, because the horse will get exercise while it’s moving.

But what if you put that carrot in the wrong place?

Place the carrot above the horse’s neck and it will constantly arch its neck backwards until it gets a stiff neck. Put the carrot in the wrong place and the horse will still try to get it even though it’s harming itself.

Your brain is that horse.

If you’re not productive and not motivated it’s because your carrot is in the wrong place. By which I mean that you are boosting dopamine levels through sources that are unnatural and unhealthy.

How Unhealthy Dopamine Sources Make You Unproductive

Your brain, left to its own natural course, will release dopamine from positive activities like completing a task and going on a winning streak.

Here are some ways your brain gets a dopamine hit naturally:

Completing tasks

Achieving things

Going on a winning streak

Making love

Exercising

Left to its own natural state your brain will boost dopamine levels through natural sources.

Then came money and commercialisation.

Some clever scientist in a lab learned how to get a dopamine hit from unnatural sources. And they abused it.

Companies realised they could make mind control a reality by making people get dopamine from their products.

A fat cat business owner then said to the scientist, “Can you make it so people get dopamine from our products so people will get addicted to them?”

An exchange was made whereby the scientist made a packet of money, the businessman got you addicted to their products, and people became slaves because someone was controlling their brains’ motivator.

Flash forward several years to the present day.

People’s brains have now learned to use unnatural sources to boost dopamine. People use unnatural source of dopamine, like eating sugar, smoking cigarettes, watching movies, and so on. Their brains are now manipulated into getting dopamine through negative actions.

We can think of these things as bad mental hygiene because they are impurities both of body and mind..

Because their brains are motivated to get those unhealthily high dopamine levels from unhealthy products, they are no longer motivated to do the right things that would have released enough dopamine to satisfy it had it not been for those corrupt businessmen who brainwashed them.

Bad news: Unhealthy sources of dopamine tend to give the brain more dopamine than the healthy sources of dopamine.

Problem is this: You get more of a boost in dopamine levels from unhealthy sources than healthy ones.

Take exercise for instance:

Exercise only releases X amount of dopamine. So you do get a hit of dopamine from exercise. But a small hit.

Having a cigarette, watching a movie (especially an adult movie), eating junk food… those activities boost dopamine levels more than exercise does.

And of course, exercise takes much more effort than those activities.

So now your brain says, “Well, I could exercise and feel quite good. Or I could just sit here watching TV and drinking coke and feel amazing.”

What do you think your brain is going to choose?

It’s like me asking you, “Would you like to earn $100 for working your butt off, or $1000 for doing nothing?” Erm, I’ll do nothing, thanks for the free money.

The reality of the situation:

People are highly motivated and highly productive

They are motivated to get dopamine from unhealthy sources

They successfully get dopamine from those sources (they smoke, have far too much sugar etc)

Because they get dopamine from unhealthy sources, they don’t get them from natural, positive sources (they don’t exercise or work to get dopamine)

These people are motivated and productive. Just in totally the wrong way.

Many people suffer from addictions because they’ve learnt to get dopamine hits either in the wrong quantities or from the wrong sources

You will not be surprised when I say that many of the world’s largest manufacturers have succeeded precisely because they are able to boost your dopamine levels from sources that are unnatural.

For starters, all foods that contain lots of sugar lead to a dopamine hit (here’s the proof). Are you addicted to Coke (as in “Cola”)? That’s because of the amount of sugar it contains. The sugar boosts dopamine levels in your brain. Your brain says, “Wow I must have done something right here because I’m drowning in dopamine now”. You’ve trained your brain that Coke = dopamine. You’re addicted.

Smoking cigarettes? Same deal. Nicotine gives you more of a boost of dopamine than a cigarette (except for sex). You get that dopamine hit one time you’re addicted.

Those adult videos you watch when no one’s home? Yeah. Same deal. Especially if you indulge in them.

The two ways to manage dopamine sources so you’re more motivated:

This is the best way to stop being lazy. And it will double motivation and productivity.

So you want to boost dopamine levels naturally. But here is the problem with that…

If you’re gotten used to hits from unhealthy sources of dopamine, changing them can be a challenge.

When you use drugs or sugar to boost dopamine levels, your brain then wants more dopamine, and it’s not happy with the amount it gets doing healthy activities.

If you’ve been smoking, eating too much, watching adult videos, or taking in other huge hits of dopamine, your brain has learnt to take more dopamine than it naturally should.

This means that your brain is now unsatisfied with the normal levels of dopamine. It wants the big hits. It wants the sugar, the cigarettes, etc.

So now you’ve got a brain that only feels satisfied if it’s given unhealthy levels of dopamine from unhealthy sources.

Problem. Because now you’re left two choices:

Continue to get dopamine hits from unnatural sources, which will make you happy for a bit but ultimately kill you.

Replace dopamine sources so they are more natural. This will be a very healthy choice, but you’ll feel like crap for a while.

Obviously the right choice here is choice two: do not do the unhealthy thing, let the brain return to its healthy state, and deal with the anxiety and depression while your brain returns to a healthy state.

Problem is it’s not that easy. Because your previous dopamine addiction has hijacked your brain.

Your brain wants very high levels of dopamine.

You have trained yourself to boost dopamine levels through sources that are not natural and not healthy.

If your brain doesn’t get those high levels of dopamine you will experience symptoms of dopamine withdrawal.

Most people notice a massive difference in self esteem when they try to change their dopamine habits.

When you lose self esteem you’ll start to think “Do I deserve to be happy / healthy anyway?” (if this is true for you, by the way, please use these 10 exercises for self esteem. They will combat the problem).

And when you think you don’t deserve happiness and health, well, then sod it, where are my cigarettes?

And so because of all this, it is very hard to get motivated and healthy.

How To Increase Dopamine Naturally To Boost Productivity And Motivation

If you have good control of your dopamine levels you will know it. You’ll have high levels of motivation, you’ll feel energy coursing through your body, you’ll have a healthy libido, and you’ll have high levels of confidence.

Those are the benefits of managing your dopamine levels.

If you do not have properly managed dopamine levels you will probably know it too, for other reasons.

Problems from unhealthy sources of dopamine:

Fatigue

Low libido

Lack of focus and concentration

Lack of motivation

Apathy

Depression

Insomnia

memory loss

Procrastination

How To Boost Dopamine Levels Naturally

Truth is, while you return your brain to natural dopamine control, you will feel like crap. Period. However, you can make things easier for yourself by boosting dopamine levels naturally.

and stop all those other unhealthy actions by replacing them with healthy actions. You’re killing the “bad dopamine” and replacing it with “good dopamine”.

How To Increase Dopamine Naturally From Healthy Sources

In a moment I will share with you the best natural ways to get dopamine.

But first a warning.

You’re going to think “These activities won’t help me and won’t give me what I want.”

Why would you think that?

Because psychology.

Remember, dopamine is what your brain wants. But your brain has been boosting dopamine levels from sources that are not natural and not healthy. So when I tell you “Go and exercise.” Your brain will say “Exercise doesn’t give me what I want. Smoking does”.

You see my point?

Because your brain has learnt the wrong thing you will think the right think is bullshit.

Which is fine.

So long as you understand that your current perception of the “right thing” is warped, you can counterattack your intuitive response.

Here’s my strategy:

Let yourself say “That’s bullshit.”

Then say, “That seems like bullshit because I have learnt to think the wrong way.”

Then say, “I’m learning to do this the right way now, so I have to just put my thoughts behind me for a second”.

Then go and do the right thing even though you will not feel like doing it.

This attitude will help you to get through the challenges of managing your dopamine levels.

2: The Best Dopamine Supplement

There are many natural health supplements that provide dopamine. The best supplements are Curcumin (found in turmeric), Gingko Biloba, L-theanine (contained in green tea), and Acetyl-l-tyrosine The highest rated dopamine supplement on Amazon is Brain Food:

3: Meditation for Dopamine

Recent scientific research has also shown that you can use meditation for dopamine boosts(6). Meditation also helps stop cravings. This makes it one of the best things you can do to overcome addictions. So, start using meditation for dopamine.

6: Boost dopamine levels by learning new things

This is mostly due to ancestry. Your ancestors needed to learn things like how to make a wheel in order to survive. Nature motivated them to do so by providing them with dopamine. Now, whenever you learn something new you get a release of dopamine and you can feel your connection to your ancestors too.

7: Boost dopamine levels by finishing jobs

One of the best ways to get dopamine naturally is to finish tasks (9).

Every time you finish a task you get a release of dopamine, a natural incentive for finishing what you start.

If you want more dopamine (and also more motivation) break a big task into a series of smaller tasks. You’ll get a dopamine hit every time you finish one of those smaller tasks. This is also why it’s often hard and intimidating to take on longer tasks, because your brain will be saying “This will take forever. When’s my next hit of dopamine?”

8: Boost dopamine levels by going on a streak

Your brain really likes going on streaks.

Maybe that’s why sports are so obsessed with win streaks. Every time you add another success to a win streak you get a hit of dopamine (10).

To get a win streak going, start one habit today, for instance meditate. Put an X down in a calendar saying you successfully meditated. Do it every day. Before long you’ll have a streak, which will provide you with dopamine, and that dopamine will motivate you to keep going.

Note that this is also a good way to break a habit.

Every time you don’t do your habit (for instance, you have a cigarette but don’t have one) mark it down. Before long you’ll get a streak. That streak will give you dopamine (making you less inclined to need the dopamine you would get from smoking) and it will also motivate you to keep going.

When you increase dopamine levels through natural sources you will increase motivation and improve your health

With the above strategies you can start to manage your dopamine and to get dopamine from healthier sources.

Science proves that when you manage your dopamine you will substantially increase productivity and motivation.

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Paul Harrison

Paul Harrison is a meditation teacher, author and journalist based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Paul has helped thousands of people to discover their true potential. Don’t miss Paul’s inspirational and enlightening book: Your Best Meditation

Paul M Harrison. Meditation Teacher. Hamilton Ontario

Paul M Harrison is an author and meditation teacher in Hamilton Ontario Canada.

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